Smart Meters with Split Suppliers?

macman

I have my electricity with BG and my gas with Octopus. Having just moved to Octopus Tracker, I have registered for a smart meter install with Octopus. However I am now wondering how this might work, as I don't think I can have a 'gas only' smart meter, as the communications module is powered off the smart leccy meter? 
If Octopus can still fit both meters, then how does the admin side of this work in terms of registering the new electricity meter with BG?
Has anyone else done this please?

brewerdave

You have to be an Octopus customer for them to fit a smart electric meter - and if you look at  SMART meter - British Gas installation delays/stock issues — MoneySavingExpert Forum,  you'll see that your chances with BG are not good!
You will either have to switch your leccy to Octopus (if possible) or hope that Octopus will fit a smart gas meter with it's own hub, which is apparently possible,  altho' I can't see how that would work.(battery powered??)

macman

Not logical to switch the leccy to Octopus unfortunately, as I have just commenced a relatively cheap fix with BG, much cheaper than Octopus Tracker.
I'll see what Octopus say, but no great hardship to supply a monthly manual gas reading if necessary.

armistice

If you already have an electric smart meter, your gas meter will use the same communications hub (part of the electric meter) even if different suppliers.  If you don't have an electric smart meter, they will fit a communications hub to your electricity supply.

If you don't currently have any smart meters and want both, get the electricity one fitted first. 

Vincero

It should be possible to have different suppliers. The electric meter would need to be done first as it would hold the Comms hub for the meters to communicate.

The be honest, the utility retail supplier companies rarely do the meter fitting themselves - some areas use a single company such as Lowry Beck to manage the roll out. You'd have thought / hoped that in such scenarios that choosing to get a smart meter with each and setting an appointment for both at the same day / time would mean it would be just the one visit / fitter involved...

Vincero

brewerdave said:

You have to be an Octopus customer for them to fit a smart electric meter - and if you look at  SMART meter - British Gas installation delays/stock issues — MoneySavingExpert Forum,  you'll see that your chances with BG are not good!
You will either have to switch your leccy to Octopus (if possible) or hope that Octopus will fit a smart gas meter with it's own hub, which is apparently possible,  altho' I can't see how that would work.(battery powered??)

I was under the impression many of the gas smart meters were actually battery powered when separate from the electric meter location (or even next to it in some cases). This also means that they all eventually need a meter fitter to replace the battery... As I doubt it's user replaceable (as then surely that would open up the possibility of fiddling the meter)... Will be interesting to see how that starts playing out over time.

macman

Looks like I'm snookered then, if BG have suspended smart meter installs for the forseeable future, but I'll see what Octopus say. In the meantime, it's a trip to the cellar once a month to keep Octopus Tracker manually updated.

lindatoo

I have same issue. Electricity with BG fixed rate from last Nov til Nov 23 which I don't want to lose, and gas on SVR with SoEnergy, who have told me that they don't have the infrastructure in place for gas only smart meter yet but would my interest for the future. Have spoken to BG regarding switching gas to them, they gave a quote which is just slightly higher than SoEnergy.. I wouldn't have thought the stock issues would be a problem as I assumed they would use the same one they installed for the electricity

MWT

Vincero said:

I was under the impression many of the gas smart meters were actually battery powered when separate from the electric meter location (or even next to it in some cases).

They are battery powered in all cases, there is never any mains power supplied to a gas meter.

The only issue is providing power to the comms hub, as it normally gets a power supply from the electricity meter.

NB it is only power that it gets from the electricity meter, all the data still has to flow over the Zigbee wireless network even though the Comms hub is mounted on the meter.

 

macman

lindatoo said:

I have same issue. Electricity with BG fixed rate from last Nov til Nov 23 which I don't want to lose, and gas on SVR with SoEnergy, who have told me that they don't have the infrastructure in place for gas only smart meter yet but would my interest for the future. Have spoken to BG regarding switching gas to them, they gave a quote which is just slightly higher than SoEnergy.. I wouldn't have thought the stock issues would be a problem as I assumed they would use the same one they installed for the electricity

They're not interchangeable!

Vincero

MWT said:

Vincero said:

I was under the impression many of the gas smart meters were actually battery powered when separate from the electric meter location (or even next to it in some cases).

They are battery powered in all cases, there is never any mains power supplied to a gas meter.

The only issue is providing power to the comms hub, as it normally gets a power supply from the electricity meter.

NB it is only power that it gets from the electricity meter, all the data still has to flow over the Zigbee wireless network even though the Comms hub is mounted on the meter.

 

This is why I doubt you'd ever get a smart meter fitted just for gas usage without having the electric meter also done. Not saying it's impossible - I'm saying that in the grand scheme of things people are lazy and the Comms hub is routinely part of the electric meter and doing something outside of this probably means extra effort on the fitter/supplier side.

Besides, in theory you don't pay for the energy the meter and Comms hub uses when it's part of the electric meter... Well not in the kWh rate anyway.